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In case you haven’t heard yet, we finally launched the rocket!!! RENU 2 successfully launched on the morning of 13 December 2015 at 0734 UT. I had a good feeling from the moment I woke up that morning that it was going to be the day. A quick look at the space weather conditions from my room were very promising from the start.

Aurora was active overhead all morning during the launch. A little bit of snow obscured many of the domes slightly, but the team at KHO worked hard all day to keep them clear. This image was taken by the ZWO Allsky Camera provided by KHO.

A light snow was falling that morning but the winds were fairly calm, so the drive up the mountain to the observatory was uneventful. The larger concern was the snow moving through the region around Andenes. Several cells of precipitation were forecast to move through that morning, each bringing gusts of wind that pushed out of limits.

The EISCAT radar kept us informed in real-time about the conditions in the ionosphere. We were looking for signatures of electron heating and the signals from EISCAT were clear that the ionosphere was indeed heating up overhead. (Photo from the EISCAT website)

As soon as the launch window opened we began to see the ideal aurora conditions. Arcs of aurora that have strong signatures in the red wavelength began moving north over our heads. These are what we call poleward moving auroral forms, or PMAFs. They are an indicator of what is called cusp aurora.

Marc Lessard, the Primary Investigator of RENU 2 (and my boss), has the final call to launch. He can’t believe how ideal the conditions were that morning. He made the call just minutes before the next snow squall moved in.

In an ideal case, the cusp will launch several of these PMAFs over head in a very predictable manner. We watched an arc go over head and Marc made the call to bring the count down to T – 15 minutes and hold (15 minutes away from launch). We then watched another PMAF go overhead and the count was brought down and held at T- 2 minutes. After the third arc passed overhead, that was all we needed to see.

3… 2… 1… FIRE!!! In this image take just after ignition you can see the payload breaking through the top of the styrofoam box that housed the rocket on the pad.

After the experience with CAPER just a few weeks prior, no one celebrated quite yet. We all waited as word came over the radio about each stage of the rocket’s flight. 1st stage separation successful, then 2nd stage successful.

RENU 2 after it has left the rail. The bursts coming out the side of the rocket are the “spin-up” motors that put the rocket into a stabilizing spin at several rotations per second.

After the 3rd stage a small deviation was detected and our stomachs dropped… The rocket was veering off several hundred kilometers to the east. The fourth and final stage kicked it a little further off to the east.

The good news it that the path was well within the safety margins NASA had designed into the mission, so no people or other living things were in danger. The other good news is that the rocket actually ended up hitting a brighter part of the arc than what we saw overhead!

All sky camera data from the middle of the rocket flight. The image on the top left shows the location of the red aurora relative to the map of Svalbard. The black line is where the rocket was supposed to go, and the darker red part (i.e. brighter aurora) just to the right of the track is where we actually hit. Score! (Image from University of Oslo)

Even after we realized that the rocket hit a good target, the celebrations were limited. The next question we had to know was, “Did the instruments work?” Everyone got busy immediately checking the state of their instruments, looking to see if good data came in. All initial indications were that each instrument worked like it was supposed to, a HUGE relief. Finally it was time to take a deep breath and smile a little bit.

The team at KHO looking for the rocket in the sky. Pictured left to right: Meghan Harrington, Bruce Fritz, Mikko Syrjasuo, Noora Partamies, Pal Gunnar, Marc Lessard

The excitement continued to build throughout the rest of the day and we celebrated that night. This rocket campaign is such a huge collaboration of effort from literally hundreds of people and we can’t thank everyone enough for their tireless dedication through all the long hours and early mornings. It took a combined effort from all over the world to make this mission a success and we are all extremely grateful.

It’s been a really exciting past few days, we have been VERY close to launching this rocket. Science conditions were almost ideal yesterday but surface winds at Andøya foiled our attempt once again. Weather is finally starting to cooperate a little bit so we have been able to go through a more typical routine.

The experiment teams are in place early each day and spend the launch window monitoring their instruments throughout the launch window. (Photo: Brent Sadler)

The launch team at Andøya is on station every day by 3:00 AM local time to start getting the rocket ready. They perform diagnostic checks for about three hours prior to the launch window opening for the day.

Umbilical connectors provide power, nitrogen purge, and other diagnostic connections to the payload while on the rail. The connections are cut or broken off at the time of launch and the bungee cords pull everything out of the way as the rocket flies by. Believe it or not, most of the umbilical system is actually re-used from previous launches — way to be eco-friendly NASA! (Photo: Brent Sadler)

Once ground checks are done, the rocket is ready to elevate into launch position. At this point the official countdown holds at T – 45 minutes, or 45 minutes away from liftoff. Before the rocket can go vertical, the winds need to cooperate. Weather balloons are sent up every 30 minutes or so to measure wind profiles up to 10 miles above the ground. If the winds are really strong (4o+ mph) the rocket won’t even come out of the building in order to protect the styrofoam box.

The styrofoam box is important for keeping the motors warm while waiting to launch. The box is light enough that it does not hinder the flight of the rocket, but that means it is susceptible to damage from strong winds. Here you can see the box shatter moments after CAPER (the other sounding rocket this winter) leaves the rail. (Photo: NASA)

If the winds are calm enough, the door opens, the building slides back on rails, and the launcher moves to the vertical position. The launcher orientation is constantly adjusted as trajectory for the rocket flight is re-calculated every few minutes based on wind measurements. If the wind speeds are too high in any given direction or vary too wildly from minute to minute we have to wait for conditions to improve. If calm enough, the launch facility is evacuated of any non-essential personnel and the countdown continues, holding at T – 15 minutes.

There has been a lot of excitement the past few days, mostly because it is the first time in a while the rocket has gone vertical with any chance to launch. (Photo: NASA)

At Andenes and here on Svalbard, the science teams begin monitoring solar wind conditions around 4:00 AM each morning. It is important to watch the general trends of activity like any weather forecast. The NASA satellite, ACE, orbits between the sun and earth and gives measurements of solar wind conditions that typically hit the earth between 45 minutes to an hour later. With practice the team is able to predict when the aurora will begin to appear overhead. Once things start to look interesting, the science team gives the go-ahead and the countdown continues.

The science team at Andøya sits in their control room monitoring a large amount information, all of which helps to determine science conditions overhead. The Svalbard science team sits together in a room watching the same conditons but without the fancy large screens and countdown clock. (Photo: Brent Sadler)

Often the count will hold at T – 2 minutes while the science team makes its final determination. Yesterday we got all the way down to T- 2 minutes and held for nearly 30 minutes. As we began to get close to the 2 minute mark, winds began to vary too dramatically, even though the aurora overhead was just about ideal. While waiting for the winds to behave we literally ran out of time in the launch window and we had to call it a day.

We only have about a week left in the window with a chance to launch so the whole team is starting to get a bit antsy. We keep our fingers crossed for the weather conditions to come together one of these mornings. I really hope the next post I share will have details about a successful launch!

The solar wind has been the most cooperative we have seen since we arrived in Svalbard. Temperatures are dropping so skies are starting to stay clear which has opened up views for some spectacular displays. Yesterday we woke up to find the sky covered with aurora — we couldn’t get up to the observatory fast enough!

The skies have been alive with activity the past couple days and the skies have been clear enough for us to see — FINALLY! You can see several other domes on top of the observatory at the bottom of the image.

We are here to study a specific type of aurora called “dayside aurora,” so-called because it only occurs on the side of the earth facing the sun. We are able to see it because we are way up north where the sun don’t shine. Dayside aurora is often dimmer than the brilliant substorm displays more commonly seen at lower latitudes.

A spectacular substorm display greeted us last night when we walked outside after dinner. The building at the bottom of the image is the University Center at Svalbard (UNIS) where students can come to learn first-hand about substorms, aurora and other geophysical topics.

The dim aurora requires a 30 second exposure to reveal the colors seen above. I captured the substorm arcs over UNIS using 8 second exposures.

View of the valley below the observatory. In the bottom center you can see Longyearbyen with the fjord behind it. In the bottom right corner you can see one of the radars at EISCAT.

Besides seeing the aurora, the other perk of clear weather is that we can get a better view of the landscape. We can see Longyearbyen from the observatory as well as the incoherent radar facility down the hill, EISCAT. EISCAT is one of the most important tools we use in addition to cameras to monitor ionospheric conditions overhead during the launch window. The crew in charge of the facility was kind enough to show us around.

EISCAT antennas pump megawatts of radio waves into the ionosphere with 32- and 42-meter dishes. The radar measures the emission reflection to determine electron density, electron temperature, ion temperature, and ion drift velocity in the ionosphere. Here an EISCAT scientists gives us a tour of the power systems responsible for operating the beams. (Photo by Marc Lessard)

Dayside aurora is only possible for a short time each morning and we plan our launch window around it. Toward the end of the window each day the sun starts to lighten the sky, just barely, even though it never rises over the horizon. Fortunately for us it never really gets so dark that we can’t see aurora in the sky.

When activity is high enough the aurora remains visible, even the dimmer red aurora that we are interested in for our launch. The streak on the left is a satellite that passed through the camera frame during the 30 second exposure.

We only caught the tail end of the substorm last night, but the general activity level has continued ever since.

This arc appeared overhead today after we got back from the launch window…at noon! The progression of the waves through the arcs was clearly evident over the span of minutes, sometimes even seconds. This was a bright enough arc that I only needed an 8 second exposure.

Sadly, despite such seeing such fantastic aurora up here we have not yet launched because of the high ground winds at the launch site in Andenes. The launch crew hasn’t even gotten the rocket out of the housing and elevated into launch position. So now we still wait for the ground weather to cooperate and hope that the conditions overhead continue to cooperate.

First, I should mention that the rocket is currently on hold again for a technical issue that was found during the vertical checks yesterday. A faulty pressure regulator in the attitude control system was discovered during the daily checks. Replacing the part means taking half the system apart, and that whole process takes a couple days. It’s a little bit frustrating because the solar wind is looking pretty good, but it sounds like high winds would have prevented us from launching anyway, so we likely are not missing any real opportunity.

Frigga, a recent mother and Qunniq, her puppy. The dogs are all extremely friendly and LOVE the snow.

While the range team is working their butts off down in Andoya, we are stuck up here in Svalbard with nothing to do. Nothing except finding a new adventure of course… One of the professors teaching a course in Longyearbyen invited us to join his class on a dog sledding trip after their final exam, and we happily accepted the invitation.

The guide teaching us about the dogs and how to handle the sled. His advice? “Don’t fall off the sled, the dogs won’t stop for you.”

We show up at the facility, immediately get changed into the suits they provide and head out to meet the dogs. We pair up, two to a sled, and take turns driving. The dogs follow the team in front of you so the navigation is easy, we were primarily responsible just for starting and stopping our own team (not easy, these dogs want to run!).

The dogs run in teams of six. First you put the lead dogs in place and someone has to hold them because they are so excited to go. Then you have to carefully select the rest of the team because some of the dogs don’t get along very well.

The guides helped us pick out a team of dogs and hold them in place while the rest of the teams got ready. If you have ever seen a dog get excited to go for a walk, just imagine 170 dogs begging for their chance to stretch their legs. We could barely keep them in place, they are natural runners just itching to take off.

When not driving the sled you sit in front of the driver. The ride is smooth and quiet, all you hear is the jingle of the dog collars and the crunch of the sled on snow.

With all of the action and snow it was hard to fully capture the experience with photos, but Meghan managed to get a pretty good video with her phone while she was riding in the sled.

When we got back we had to help break up the teams and put the dogs back at their homes. The dogs get fed after the run and most of them seemed to relax pretty quickly as we were leaving. With their thick fur, you can bury these dogs in snow and they’ll just curl up to take a nap.

Everyone was all smiles after the trip, including me. We stayed plenty warm in the suits they provided, even with all the wind and snow.

Hopefully the rocket is back online tomorrow, I am starting to get anxious!

Days 7 and 8 of the launch window were lost due to gale force winds at the launch site. Fortunately things were pretty quiet overhead in the ionosphere, as predicted, so we likely would not have launched anyway.

Most days visibility is almost zero on top of the mountains outside Longyearbyen. (Photo: Noora Partemies)

Conditions are starting to pick up in the solar wind but sadly another day has been lost. This morning during the initial daily checks a pressure regulator in the attitude control system failed and had to be replaced. It requires enough work to take the rocket down and replace the part that we completely lost the day and tomorrow may be in doubt as well.

The ground conditions at Svalbard have been much better than at the launch site. The break from the wind has been nice since it had been pretty nasty on top of the mountain when we first arrived (the video above is one of the better looking days). Luckily for us we have a pretty sweet ride to the top. We drive our four wheel drive van up about 2/3 up the side of the mountain to a coal mining outpost, then rendezvous with a familiar mode of transportation.

You may remember seeing a vehicle like this last year when I was at McMurdo Station in Antarctica. Turns out these Hagglunds (a.k.a. belt-wagons) are useful vehicles at both poles!

The bad news about the mostly cloudy and windy weather we keep getting on Svalbard is that it really limits visibility. Technically we could find the right conditions to launch without seeing the sky, but we all would feel much better if we could see what we were launching into!

View from atop the observatory during one of the rare moments with a break in the clouds. There are over a dozen different domes with different cameras set up to watch the skies here at KHO. The moon is in the upper right corner doing its best to ruin visibility for the cameras.

NASA officials gave us the thumbs up to proceed again today as normal, so we are good to go after the unfortunate scare caused by the CAPER launch. A combination of factors, like using a different motor than CAPER and review of our own assembly procedures gives us confidence that RENU 2 will not suffer a similar fate as the other mission this campaign.

The mood for the launch team was much lighter today after a couple stressful days dealing with the CAPER anomaly. Even the boss found time to laugh (who knows what was funny…)

Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate today. Winds on the ground were not a problem, but weather balloons launched throughout the morning indicated shear winds in excess of 100 mph at roughly about 5 miles altitude. It turned out to be no big deal, however, since the space weather conditions were not very cooperative either.

The sun rotates on average once every 27 days. It rotates left to right as viewed from Earth. Solar wind from two active regions (in the red circles) is currently on either side of Earth, leaving us in a quiet window. (Photo: GOES X-Ray Imager)

The Earth is in a short lull for solar wind conditions. The solar wind is always blowing because the sun is really hot and hot gases expand. The effect is the opposite of why you need to add air to your car tires in the winter when the temperatures drop. Really active regions on the surface of the sun will produce short bursts like gusts of wind.

Plasma in the solar wind traces out a spiral pattern like water from a sprinkler. Since the solar wind takes a few days to reach Earth (green dot), active sources on the sun (yellow dot) may be almost out of sight by the time we feel the effects on Earth. This diagram is from a NOAA space weather forecast model that illustrates how dense regions of high speed plasma form a spiral after leaving the sun. (Photo: WSA-ENLIL, NOAA)

Typical gusts of solar wind take days to travel the 93 million miles to Earth. Predicting exactly when they will hit is about as reliable as tracking a hurricane in the ocean (often close to correct, but not always spot on). Larger events that come from Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) and solar flares, like in the picture in the header, are a little more extreme but that is a subject for another day. NASA’s SDO has been tracking solar activity for five years now, and has a good history of activity on the sun, including for the solar maximum that is currently winding down.

Tomorrow the weather at Andenes looks to be extremely windy so we are planning to take the day off since a launch is extremely unlikely. Hopefully the weather will cooperate when we get into the next stream of solar wind.

Typically I have updated the blog with reference to the number of days I’ve been traveling. Now that we’re in the launch window itself I think it makes sense to talk in terms of those days too, since they are the important ones for us now, so I’ll list both

The first few days on site have been very exciting, to say the least. I’m a bit behind in keeping this current, so I’ll provide a little recap here to catch up.

Day 1 of the window was uneventful, but very productive. There are two rockets scheduled to launch during this campaign. Our rocket, RENU 2, was not ready for launch quite yet due to some final testing by the NASA folks at the launch site. This turned out to be OK since we had to iron out a bunch of details like communications and data monitoring. CAPER, the other rocket mission, was ready to go but could never elevate into launch position due to high winds on the ground.

NASA carefully calculates the exact angle (a) to elevate the rocket during launch to hit our desired target. High winds can catch the tail fins of the rocket just after launch (b) and push the trajectory off course.

High winds at Andøya kept us down again on Days 2 and 3 (30-40 mph, mostly sustained). The good news on Day 2 was that we finished testing so RENU 2 would be ready to go whenever the weather decided to cooperate. The good news for Day 3 was that the solar wind conditions picked up and really started to look interesting. We were very optimistic heading into Day 4 based on solar activity and forecasts.

RENU 2 and CAPER both elevated and ready to go on the launch pad at Andoya Space Center in Norway (Photo credit: NASA)

Day 4 has so far been the most exciting yet disappointing day all at the same time. As we had hoped, the space weather conditions looked fantastic almost right away in the morning. After a short hour delay while some fishing boats crossed the zone in front of the launch facility, the CAPER team was ready to go. They had been first in line to launch for the first few days while the moon is still up and bright, and the light is slightly prohibitive for our instrumentation. The CAPER team saw what looked like great conditions for their science and hit go!

CAPER shortly after takeoff. RENU 2 waits silently in the foreground. While on the ground both rockets are enclosed in styrofoam and hot air is pumped in to keep the motors from freezing. (Photo credit: NASA)

Sadly the excitement was short lived. An anomaly occurred in the third stage of the rocket shortly after takeoff. The rocket only made it a little over 10 miles down range before spiraling out of control. NASA has confirmed that the payload went down in a clear area with nothing or no one in danger. The root cause of the issue still has not been determined, however. So while conditions continued to look great for a while yesterday, we could not launch while we waited for clearance from NASA.

The silver lining to the issue experienced by CAPER is that it appears to be isolated to the third stage of the rocket. Fortunately for us, the primary difference between the RENU 2 and CAPER rockets happens to be the third stage motor (i.e. RENU 2 uses a different motor than CAPER). We will use the lessons can be learned from CAPER and right now NASA engineers are quadruple-checking every detail to make sure the motors are assembled correctly. Right now the team is optimistic that we will have no issues similar to CAPER, in particular because of the different third stage.

So now, today, again we wait for the go-ahead from NASA. Solar wind conditions look OK, but maybe not exactly ideal. Some of the science ground support has been called off since we are still waiting for clearance from NASA, so we can’t be sure what conditions would look like. For now that is all irrelevant, however. Our first priority is just ensuring that we will have a successful launch, whenever that time comes.